]]>Related: Watch James play Starhawk in his video walkthrough on YouTube. Like our videos? Subscribe to our channel!
Lightbox Interactive’s 2007 PSN download Warhawk was a fairly decent shooter that helped prove, fairly early in the Playstation 3′s life cycle, that large sized downloadable games were viable for the platform. It got pretty solid reviews and decent sales, despite the fact that notably missing from Warhawk, which combined 3rd person combat with flight combat, was a single player campaign. That aspect was scrapped early in development.

For the sequel, Starhawk (no relation to the 1977 arcade game of the same name), Lightbox seeks to up things considerably. They’ve brought back most of the features seen in Warhawk, including the mixture of shooter combat and arial fighting. They’ve also added a robust story-based single player mode set in a universe in which space is a lot like the old west (think Firefly). Better, they’ve built in a a new feature called Build n’ Battle, which inserts RTS elements into the game giving players the ability to create structures with strategic or even offensive value.

Last week, we sent Game Front’s James Heaney down to Sony Santa Monica to talk to LightBox Interactive President Dylan Jobe about the game, which launches tomorrow. They spoke at length about topics ranging from an integrated cutscene/gameplay experience, why Austin, Tx is awesome, and James’ grandmother’s future in a carney freakshow (really!)

JAMES: I was taking a look at some of the things you’ve worked on; you’ve been part of the Twisted Metal series?

Dylan Jobe: I have a long lineage, spanning from simple texture maps, to owning a studio. On Twisted Metal Black I worked at Incognito with Scott Campbell and David Jaffe. I did cars, levels, all that stuff and eventually kind of worked my way up.

J: I’m assuming you’re too young to have worked on the first Warhawk…

D: I appreciate you thinking I’m too young! I did not work on Warhawk, yet I did work at Single Track a long time ago. A LOONG time ago. That was my first game job, actually.

J: What was that job?

D: I was a 3D artist. I quit my career – I was a prop designer – I pretty much said “fuck it’, and changed careers, and ditched it. I was doing quite well for myself and moved to Utah and worked at Single Track. And of course, then we moved everyone to Austin.

J: I love Austin, I was there a few years ago for the comedy festival. It was a lot of fun, that place knows how to party.

D: Yes it does. We are one block away from 6th street…

J: So, I want to cut to the chase. We are in Santa Monica, California, at Sony Santa Monica Studios. Or.. am I right? Sometimes I don’t even know where I am.

D: Well that’s because we put a bag over your head before you arrived. Which is just standard protocol. We have some Jack Bauer role playing at work too.

J: The reason I’m here is that you guys have an upcoming game, Starhawk.

D: And you played Warhawk.

J: When I played the original Warhawk, I was stunned by the graphics. It was just ‘this is it. This is photorealistic. Video Games will never look better than this.’ I don’t know if I could go so far as to call myself a Warhead, because the community is extraordinarily dedicated.

D: It’s voracious.

J: There are few games with that kind of following.

D: Yeah, we’re very lucky, and I think one of the things that benefitted us with Warhawk and will be the same case with Starhawk, is we have a very diverse set of game play. One of the things we’ve been really lucky to see through the beta with Starhawk, and we know will carry on after release, is that the game is so broad, we strategic elements, shooter elements, aircraft, ground troops, that it is a way for one shooter to bring a bunch of different types of players together.

Players can find a role for themselves in the game that doesn’t really have a role system and I think that’s what’s rad about Starhawk.

J: I played the beta before it was publicly released and I had a lot fun with it. This might sound almost cliche but I love the art standpoint you guys are taking that space is the wild wild west.

D: I picture right now if you could edit in Wil Smith’s song. Our style is a little different (laughs).

J: Yeah, a little bit. I would go so far as to say it’s a lot better. Thinking about the world in the game, I’ve never seen that. (Laughs) Maybe I have havn’e tplayed enough video games!

D: To build a battle system, the way we execute it in Starhawk, is like nothing that has ever been released on any console. But there have been other games with similar elements. And if you remember back – and you’re an ooold gamer – you might remember a PC game called Battlezone.

J: Yeah…

D: And that was great, it allowed you to build some structures, but it wasn’t the same detail, the type of interactivity. The type of complexity we’ve been able to achieve here, there’re aspects of Battlezone, there are aspects of Plants versus Zombies, aspects of section 8.

J: One thing [I notice] when I’m playing Starhawk, when I’m building a building, it’s almost like building something in a dream, a very random, dreamlike experience-

D: We worked incredibly hard, we worked on a ton of prototypes, on how to get the Build n’ Battle system just right, and ultimately what it came down to was a very simple maxim that we used within the studio. We didn’t want to get into the RTS tropes like ‘HARVEST GOLD!’, they’re absolutely boring. We wanted to make building a structure as visceral as killing someone. Pull the trigger, you should build a building.

J: It’s great to hear you describe it like that, because that’s the way I feel when I’m doing it.

D: Right, you have to think of the Build n’ Battle system as an extension of your arsenal. In fact, in the single player campaign, Emmett (game protagonist Emmett Graves) and his gear man, Cutter, refer to it as an arsenal. It’s not like ‘let’s go manage a facility!’, it’s like ‘no, let’s just friggin’ drop huuuge buildings, from orbit, and a fireball smashing onto the ground’. And you can crush people with it, crush AI, crush other players, it’s incredibly visceral.

Emmet Graves needs your help, he wants to explore the wild frontiers of space in Starhawk — and our full walkthrough will help you survive. Space is a dangerous place, mostly due to something called “Rift Energy” which is a valuable but deadly commodity. One day, Emmet is enjoying a leisurely day of mining, the next he’s partially exploded thanks to a mutant Outcast attack and infected with rift radiation. A hop and a skip later, and Emmet is a hired gun trying to control his mutations. I’m sure we can all share that problem.

Below you’ll find our full walkthrough for the singleplayer portion of Starhawk. For a deeper look into the unknown, take a dive into the trophies and cheats page.

Welcome to the Starhawk cheats page, where you’ll find everything special, extra, unique, or strange we can find for Sony’s PS3 exclusive online multiplayer experience. Now sporting a singleplayer campaign to go with the high-flying sci-fi multiplayer, Starhawk emphasizes ground combat on-foot over the vehicle-based battles of Warhawk. Another new feature is a constructable base, where your team can gain new special vehicles to command against your enemies. If you feel so inclined, drop those new constructable buildings on your enemies for a Starhawk man-pancake.

Below you’ll find our full list of extra articles. To get a deeper look into Starhawk, take a shuttle to the full walkthrough page.

Here on the Starhawk trophies page, you’ll be able to get an early look into the challenges online or offline for the spiritual successor to the massive multiplayer game Warhawk. Replacing the fantasy 50′s aesthetics of Warhawk, Starhawk puts you in a pulpy future where prospectors mine for rare minerals and try to avoid the deadly effects. An even deadlier effect than the minerals themselves are the evil warbands of mutants that protect the resources. Load up and prepare for an adventure with up to 32 players in Starhawk.

Explore the frontier of space, and survive doing it, with the Starhawk walkthrough. Look beyond the stars and prospect for treasure in our Starhawk cheats page.

Trophies

Starhawk Veteran (Platinum):
Earn every single trophy in Starhawk.

First Blood (Bronze):
Get your first kill in multiplayer.

Outlaw (Silver):
Get 1,000 kills in multiplayer.

The First of Many (Bronze):
Win your first multiplayer game.

Conqueror (Silver):
Win 100 multiplayer games.

CTF Starter (Bronze):
Win your first Capture the Flag game.

CTF Veteran (Silver):
Win 100 Capture the Flag games.

Zones Starter (Bronze):
Win your first Zones game.

Zones Veteran (Silver):
Win 100 Zones games.

TDM Starter (Bronze):
Win your first Team Deathmatch game.

TDM Veteran (Silver):
Win 100 Team Deathmatch games.

Team Leader (Silver):
Play a perfect Team Deathmatch game (top player, no deaths).

Lone Wolf (Silver):
Play a perfect Deathmatch game (top player, no deaths).

Prospector Starter (Bronze):
Win your first Prospector game.

Prospector Veteran (Silver):
Win 50 Prospector games.

Perfect Harvest (Silver):
Win a Prospector game without losing any lives.

Ready Up (Bronze):
Use Build & Battle for the first time in the campaign.

Build & Battle (Bronze):
Use Build & Battle for the first time in multiplayer.

Curious Builder (Bronze):
Build one of every available structure in a single multiplayer game.

Prolific Builder (Silver):
Build 100 structures in multiplayer.

Mancake! (Bronze):
Kill an enemy by dropping a structure on them.

Saboteur (Bronze):
Destroy an enemy vehicle with the Welding Torch.

ARMed and Dangerous (Bronze):
Kill an enemy with the A.R.M.

Deadeye (Bronze):
With the LR-3 Railgun, kill an enemy from more than 2,500 feet away.

Mech My Day (Bronze):
Shoot the pilot out of a Hawk while it’s on the ground.

Out of the Saddle (Bronze):
Shoot the driver, passenger, or gunner out of a Razorback.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/starhawk-trophies/feed/0How About a Starhawk Trailer to Go With the Public Betahttp://www.gamefront.com/how-about-a-starhawk-trailer-to-go-with-the-public-beta/
http://www.gamefront.com/how-about-a-starhawk-trailer-to-go-with-the-public-beta/#commentsWed, 18 Jan 2012 18:22:54 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=147375If you've got a Playstation Plus membership, you can still get into the beta and check out Starhawk yourself.

Yesterday we reported that the public beta for Starhawk, the third-person shooter/vehicular combat hybrid for Playstation 3, had started, and today we bring you a little something to introduce you to what to expect in the game.

Embedded below is the beta’s introduction trailer, explaining quite a bit about Starhawk and its mechanics, as well as showing off some gameplay. It’s pretty good for getting a sense of what the game will be like if you’re unfamiliar, and it’ll whet your appetite for some mayhem even if you’re not playing in the beta.

If you’re a Playstation Plus member, you can still check out the beta on the Playstation Network. You also can get access if you participated in the private beta.

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The folks at Sony today announced that the upcoming online shooter Starhawk will be launching for reals on May 8. Yay! That’s exciting, right? May is shaping up to be an intense month with this and TERA and Max Payne 3 launching that month.

But that’s not all the Starhawk news we have today. We also learned that the public beta for the game starts today for PlayStation Plus subscribers and those who participated in the private beta. The beta will open up more over the next month; folks who bough Uncharted 3 get in on the 31st, GameStop is giving out codes that will get you in on February 7, IGN can get you a code that will get you in on February 14, and then everybody else gets in on February 21.

Now the war begins within myself over whether I want to play SWTOR or Starhawk. Ugh.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/starhawk-public-beta-starts-today-launches-fully-in-may/feed/0Starhawk Will Get a Bunch of Free DLChttp://www.gamefront.com/starhawk-will-get-a-bunch-of-free-dlc/
http://www.gamefront.com/starhawk-will-get-a-bunch-of-free-dlc/#commentsThu, 12 Jan 2012 10:23:55 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=146590Also, the open beta will be starting soon.

Sony’s Harvard Bonin spoke with RespawnAction about Starhawk, and he revealed an interesting tidbit: namely, that buyers of the game will have plenty of DLC to look forward to, and that much of that DLC will be free.

I can’t go into specifics, but we do have a bunch of free DLC planned… and it might be surprising. We, of course, have stuff we are happy to take your money for, too! We rethought our DLC strategy and we’ll reveal more about it as we get closer to release.

Hurray free stuff.

Bonin also declared that the open beta for the game, which will allow all PlayStation Plus members to participate, will be starting up “soon.” How soon? Just soon. That’s how soon.

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The PS Blog tells us today that Uncharted 3 has gone gold and is off to the presses, but that’s not all. They also say that the game will ship with beta codes for the much anticipated Starhawk, which I guess is added value to the Uncharted 3 package. That’s actually an “early access” code, so it’s not like you’ll need it to play the beta, but it’s cool nonetheless. Just don’t, like, buy the game for the beta code. That would be silly.

Next to yesterday’s Battlefield 3 Caspian Sea gameplay trailer, everything else out of Gamescom kind of pales in comparison, particularly seeing as that was a bona fide gameplay trailer. And so this non-gameplay trailer for Starhawk doesn’t register that much on my own personal richter scale. That said, it does look like this trailer is in-engine, and that’s nice — the game looks nice and pretty. So check it out.

With San Diego’s summer nerd orgy close on the horizon, it’s wise to stay abreast of all the video game goodness that developers and publishers will be showing off at the Con. Today, Sony announced a list of panels that serves as a useful primer on the games that the company will have on hand.

Firstly, and maybe most intriguingly, panel attendees will be able to get a better look at Journey, an artsy, impressionistic title from Flower developers thatgamecompany. Also present will be Resistance 3, for all your four-eyed skull needs. Uncharted 3, already sampled by many thanks to its public multiplayer beta, will arrive at Comic-con with its keffiyeh flapping in the wind.

Twisted Metal, resurrected by David Jaffe after years in franchise purgatory, will rattle down the highway of recovery with a panel on Saturday the 23rd. Warhawk follow-up Starhawk rounds out the repertoire, bringing third-person action, used-future sci-fi, and flying mechs.

All in all, it’s quite an impressive array! Which game are you most excited to learn more about? Chime in in the comments.

Warhawk is the only game I can think of with two Ws in the title, and that’s awkward, so I’m glad Sony is making Starhawk to help me wash the weirdness out of my eyes. Anyway, we haven’t seen a lot of Starhawk yet, which is only natural since it was just announced last week, and so I’m happy to be able to provide you a new glimpse with this small gallery of screenshots. You’re welcome.